Trio of chart-toppers to take 2012 Winery Tour

HOLY smoke! As The Guide went to press this morning, the organisers of the annual Classic Hits Winery Tour popped the top off one of the bubbliest brews in the event’s six-year history.
Long-committed to booking only Kiwi artists, the organisers have compiled their best line-up ever with headliner Gin Wigmore supported by 2011 APRA Silver Scroll Award winner Avalanche City and 1990s heroes The Mutton Birds, reforming especially for the event.
The trio of acts is sure to be a hit with audiences on the Winery Tour trail, which starts
in Matakana on February 3, 2012 and over the next month makes its way to a further 13 vineyards around the country, dropping in at Gisborne’s Brunton Road on February 11.
Organisers Civic Events said they wanted their choices to represent artists at differing stages of their careers.
And the artists involved say no one will enjoy the month-long tour as much as they will.
Having taken out the Silver Scroll award Avalanche City — aka Auckland musician Dave Baxter — is at the cusp of big things, building on the success of his hit single Love Love Love by this year touring as far afield as Japan, Australia, the US and London.
“I’ve always wanted to play on the Winery Tour and it’s so cool to be playing alongside Gin and The Mutton Birds
. . . they’re Kiwi legends,” says Baxter. “I’m bringing my six-piece band with me so it’s going to be awesome.”
Meanwhile, Mutton Birds frontman Don McGlashan — who was last in Gisborne in May as part of his solo NZ Music Month tour — said the Winery gigs would be occasions for he and his bandmates to mark not one, but two, milestones.
For one, 2012 marks 20 years since the release of the band’s self-titled debut album. For another, it will be 10 years since their last live show.
Though they’ve been gone, however, they’ve not been forgotten, songs like Anchor Me and Dominion Road having been adopted as Kiwi anthems. McGlashan said he was looking forward to doing those songs once more with bandmates Ross Burge, David Long and Alan Gregg.
“A band is more than just a bunch of musicians,” he said. “When it really works, there’s a magic there which is more than the sum of its parts. That’s certainly the way it was with the Mutton Birds so it’s going to be great to take the beast out of the garage again and make the gravel fly.”
Speaking of gravel, Wigmore — already a chart-topping, fistful-of-awards-winning artist thanks to the success of her 2009 album Holy Smoke — will be touring on the back of her sophomore long-player Gravel & Wine. The album is not released until November 7 but a sneak preview reveals that it’s a cracker . . . reeking of Alabama bars and Mississippi sass.
But while Wigmore enjoyed living on the wild side during the months she spent in the US researching her album, she says she’s also partial to the gentler pleasures promised by a few weeks of tiki-touring around New Zealand.
“It’s a great bill . . . I’ve always been a big fan of Don and The Mutton Birds so I’m excited to be on tour with them and Avalanche City are just so hot right now,” she said.
“We’re on the road for a month in summer and I can’t wait to play in some of our most spectacular outdoor settings and maybe even drink a few glasses of good New Zealand wine.”
■ The 2012 Classic Hits Winery Tour will be on at Gisborne’s Brunton Road Vineyard on February 11. Tickets will be available in Gisborne at Stephen’s PhotoPlus — or via winerytour.co.nz or Ticketmaster — from November 7.